Tired of the polarizing and often left-leaning debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Niv Elis ’05 and Nitzan Ziv ’07 decided to form a group to present Israel’s side of the story from as many perspectives as possible. The group, called Kol Israel, Hebrew for “The Voice of Israel”, has been active on campus since its founding a year ago, adding to the variety of Wesleyan clubs and perspectives that address the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.
“Our philosophy is that we support Israel from a position of knowledge,” Elis said. “It’s not that we are simply Jews or Israelis or whatever, and feel the need to support Israel as such. Instead, we make it our business to know the whole story, the history, the context and the perspectives from all sides. In that light, we don’t feel the need to hide anything – we support Israel because we know the history, not in spite of the fact. It only makes sense for us to share our knowledge with the rest of campus.”
Elis also emphasized the importance of differing political views among group members, with representation from both the left and the right.
“We think it’s fantastic to have different perspectives because it allows everyone to participate, and it fosters really interesting discussions,” Elis said.
Kol Israel has organized several lectures, including bringing former Knesset Member Naomi Chazan, a gay Palestinian man, to campus. They are also planning to host a talk by Michael Oren, author of The New York Times bestseller “Six Days of War”, to be held on April 11, in Shanklin room 107.
“We attempt to balance our left-wing speakers with right-wing speakers in order to educate people from all different perspectives,” said Kol Israel member Erik Rosenberg ’08. “Kol Israel’s diversity of opinion is beneficial because it shows the issues for their true complexity. This diversity illustrates that the conflict is much more complicated than ‘Pro-Palestine versus Pro-Israel’.”
In addition to lectures, Kol Israel sponsors Israeli film screenings, food tastings, and Jewish holiday and cultural events, with the intention of portraying the non-politicized aspects of Israeli life that often go neglected.
“We are disturbed that Israel is nothing more than a player in a conflict to so many people. Israel also has a thriving cinema, literature, academia and culture,” Elis said.
Kol Israel replaced the now defunct Students For Israel (SFI) as Wesleyan’s primary Israeli advocacy group. The right-wing and controversial SFI disbanded itself after lengthy controversy turned hostile.
“The on-campus debate about Israel/Palestine was really ugly a few years ago,” Elis said. “The people that had founded SFI were so exhausted that they sort of gave up.”
Kol Israel is not the only Israeli-Palestinian group to be founded amidst animosity. Third Path, a group that seeks to promote dialogue and create greater understanding of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was founded in 2002 by Joe Gindi ’03 and Eli Staub ’04 after witnessing a volatile “Stand in Solidarity with Israel Against Terrorism” rally.
At the rally, there were Jewish students with signs stating that Israel would be best supported through encouraging negotiations and ending the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza strip. Other attendees, in sharp disagreement, proceeded to attack these students with threatening remarks.
“This made us realize that there was a lot of work to be done promoting peace and an end of the occupation in the Jewish community,” Gindi said.
According to its mission statement, Third Path advocates the termination of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, a two-state solution to the conflict and an end to uncritical support of Israeli policies in the United States and Jewish community. Third Path also rejects the “over-simplified binary of ‘pro-Palestine’ and ‘pro-Israel’ that dominates the discourse surrounding the conflict.”
“I’m interested in opening conversations about the conflict in Israel and Palestine that do not assume one must be either pro-Palestinian or pro-Israeli and that the two are not diametrically opposed,” said Leora Abelson ’07, a member of Third Path. “’Third path’ does not necessarily just mean middle path, it means trying to approach the conflict without succumbing to the vicious dichotomy, without relying on stereotypes and categorizations.”
Students for a Free Palestine (SFP), another student group concerned with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, declined to comment.
While all of these groups seek to promote peace in the Middle East, there is not always cooperation among people and groups with differing viewpoints and opinions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
“Sadly, Kol Israel does not really have a relationship with Students for a Free Palestine” Elis said. “I think this is frustrating because I am a student for a free Palestine. I fully believe in the national aspirations of the Palestinian people, that they should have their own free state, institutions, economy, etc.”
Although the student groups hold differing perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, some share common ground. Kol Israel and Third Path recently co-sponsored a presentation by Daniel Levy, a member of the Israeli government who helped draft the Geneva Accord.
“I don’t accept the binary of a student for Israel being mutually exclusive from a student for Palestine,” Elis said, echoing Third Path’s founding philosophy. “Many of Kol Israel’s members feel that way too.”
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